CV Science

Lionel LARUE PhD

Course and current status

1982-1988 Graduate student at University of Paris VI, Paris, France. Thesis in Unité de Pharmacologie-Moléculaire. Institut Gustave-Roussy, Villejuif, France (U 140 INSERM, UA 147 CNRS). Department Chairmen : Pr. J-B. Le Pecq (Université de Paris VI) et C. Paoletti (Université de Paris XI).

1988-1991 Postdoctoral Associate at Fox Chase Cancer Center (Philadelphia, PA, 19111, USA) in the laboratory of Pr. B. Mintz.

1991-1995 Research associate at the Max-Planck Institut für Immunbiologie (Freiburg, 7800, Germany) in the laboratory of Pr. R. Kemler.

1995-1996 Chargé de Recherche 1° classe in the department UMR144 CNRS at the Curie Institute (Paris, 75005, France).

1997-2003 Chargé de Recherche 1° classe. Group leader in the department UMR146 CNRS at the Curie Institute (Orsay, 91405, France).

2003-2009  Directeur de Recherche 2° classe. Group leader in the department UMR146 CNRS at the Curie Institute (Orsay, 91405, France).

2010-date Directeur de Recherche 1, Group leader in the department U1021 INSERM, UMR3347 CNRS, Curie Institute Orsay.

Scientific summary

Lionel Larue obtained his PhD in 1987 from Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University Paris, where he got a training in Molecular Pharmacology applied in Oncology in the laboratory of Claude Paoletti and Jean-Bernard LePecq at Institut-Gustave-Roussy, Villejuif. As a postodoctoral fellow at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia with Beatrice Mintz, he got interested in determination, differentiation, and transformation of melanocytes. In 1991, Dr. Larue moved to the Department of Rolf Kemler at the Max-Planck Institut für Immunbiologie, Freiburg Germany, where he got interested in more sophisticated mouse molecular genetics involving embryonic stem cells and conditionnal mutations. From the fourth embryonic layer, neural crest and its derivatives including melanocytes, Larue focused its interest on preimplantation and gastrulation focusing mainly on the cadherin-catenin complex genes. At the end of the 90s, Larue came back to France where he started his own laboratory. Lionel Larue is currently Research Director (INSERM) at Institut Curie, Orsay in an INSERM-CNRS department. In order to get a better undestanding in melanoma initiation and progression our research is based on the normal and pathological development of melanocytes, and it combines molecular, cellular and physiopathological approaches, using mostly mouse models with b-catenin as corner stone.